TLDR; Incompetent orthodontist, unprofessional staff. I was a patient back in 2009, and my finished treatment resulted in an overbite, an extremely visible overjet in the two front teeth, and crowding in the bottom teeth. (You know there's a problem when your friends' and family members' first reactions to your newly brace-less teeth are "Your teeth aren't straight" and "Your two front teeth are sticking out".)
I came to this office back in 2009 when I was still in high school. Background on the original state of my teeth - crowding in the top and bottom teeth, not the straightest, but not that bad either.
First impressions after only walking into the office - I noticed that the assistants' clothing choices were... how do I say this?... a bit revealing (not going to go into detail here). Not to mention the Jersey Shore levels of makeup, I kid you not. I'm generally all about women dressing however the hell they want, but even I'd expect some amount of professionalism from supposedly an orthodontic specialist's office.
But okay, first impressions aren't everything. Maybe they'll do a fantastic job with my teeth. Oh, should I have run the other direction. Let me list for you all the (major) things that went wrong.
1. As I mentioned earlier, I originally had some crowding in both my top and bottom teeth. I expected the braces to shape my bite so that more room would be created to fit my teeth. To clarify, imagine the shape of the row of your teeth as a wide U-shape versus a narrow U-shape. Clearly, the wider U-shape would give your teeth the most room to fit, and the narrower U-shape would give your teeth the least. After I had braces for only a few months, I visibly noticed that the U-shape of my teeth were becoming increasingly narrower, which was a problem since I had crowding in my upper teeth to begin with! At the time, I didn't think much of it. Besides, it was difficult to visually tell that something was wrong while my braces were still attached. However, as soon as I got my braces off, I noticed that my upper teeth were so crowded that my two front teeth actually developed an overjet. If you don't know what an overjet is, just imagine those teeth that stick out of a rat's mouth that you see in cartoons. Yeah, not a good look. For the next six years, I would constantly have to deal with self-confidence issues, and would always hide my laugh or smile in fear that someone might see.
2. One rule that should be obvious to well-trained orthodontists - you CANNOT force a tooth into a space smaller than it. If you do, the tooth will be "squeezed" into too tight of a space, and as soon as you take the braces off, the tooth will want to move out of its position. Dr. Bowers clearly did not understand this very simple concept, as he forced all of my bottom teeth into spaces that were way too small. When I eventually got my braces off, my bottom teeth would shift out of position significantly even throughout the day. And yes, I wore my retainers every night. My teeth shifted THAT MUCH.
3. This extends from my previous point. After noticing how much my teeth were shifting, I informed Dr. Bowers at one of my checkup meetings. I told him that my retainers felt tight every single night, and I asked if he could fix it. Apparently, by "fix", Dr. Bowers made a new bottom retainer for me - one that KEPT my bottom teeth in its shifted, crooked position! Did he seriously believe that was the solution??
Fast forward to 2017. I am now an adult with stable income, and I finally have the funds to undo all the problems with my teeth that Dr. Bowers created. I am now seeing a new orthodontist, whom I couldn't be more happy with. However, nothing will ever make up for the thousands of dollars and years of braces wasted due to Dr. Bowers' incompetency. read more